Submitted by the Sound Defense Alliance.

The Sound Defense Alliance, while not a party to the federal lawsuit, is deeply disappointed by the federal court’s decision to grant the U.S. Navy more time to complete its revised analysis of the environmental impacts from the increased number of EA-18G Growler jets stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/deadline-extended-for-growler-study/).

While we respect the judicial process, this extension means yet more months — and likely years — of harmful impacts to the Whidbey Island community, its schools, its economy, its wildlife and its natural environment. The judge already ruled in 2021 that the Navy’s Environmental Impact Statement was deficient in several key areas. Specifically, the Navy failed to:

· Adequately quantify the impact of Growler noise on classroom learning.

· Disclose the basis for its greenhouse gas emissions calculations.

· Take a hard look at species-specific impacts on birds.

· Seriously evaluate relocation of the Growlers to a more suitable training location, such as El Centro, California.

Despite these findings, the Navy has been allowed to continue operations at the expanded level — operations that brought a fourfold increase in touch-and-go training flights at OLF Coupeville. This has inflicted undeniable damage on the health and well-being of island residents, disrupted children’s learning and jeopardized sensitive wildlife in Ebey’s Reserve and surrounding habitats.

We are not asking for the elimination of critical military readiness. We are asking for it to be carried out responsibly and in locations where training activities do not pose such extraordinary risks to surrounding communities. The Navy itself acknowledged in its initial review that there were viable alternatives — yet those alternatives were dismissed without meaningful study.

Whidbey Island residents have shouldered the burden of Growler operations for too long. With this latest delay, the inequity deepens. The Sound Defense Alliance calls on our elected officials, state leaders and federal representatives to press the Navy for swift accountability and to seriously pursue relocation of some or all of Growler training operations to a more appropriate site.

Our community, our children and our environment deserve better than indefinite extensions and inadequate environmental reviews. It is time for decisive action to protect the long-term health and sustainability of Whidbey Island and Northwest Washington from military overreach.

Terra Huey, SDA program director, concluded, “We encourage people to continue to respond to the noise impacts by contacting https://www.quietskies.info/access-the-county-report-site (noise map), local elected officials, and the Governor’s office. (See SDA’s website for contact information.)

For more information about SDA, visit https://www.sounddefensealliance.org/.